Oops. There was no update last night. However, nothing happened yesterday. There was no baking, and there was no writing. There was, however, a small get together where we ate rather a lot of the cookies that I’d already baked.

One of these days, someone is going to pinch me, and I’m going to wake up. Because I simply cannot believe that I get to live this life. I mean, I must have been extra special good the last time around or something to deserve this! First, we have House of Sable Locks being named a modern erotic classic. And now, this just happened:

Today was the third grade field trip. 120 8-and-9-year-old kids went to Legoland, and I had charge of two eight-year-old boys all day (one mine, one borrowed). Really, we had a BLAST. The Legend of Chima ride involves waterguns, and many truth in advertising warnings that you WILL get soaked. The Dragon roller coaster wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be — roller coasters and I don’t get along, but this one was actually fun. Lots of rides, lots of walking, lots and LOTS of Legos, 120 very tired kids on the buses home. So, given this, I had very little online time until we were on the bus to come home. Looking at my email, I found that I’d been tagged on Facebook by Cecilia Tan: Hey, have you seen this?

This, for anyone who doesn’t want to click through, is Cliterati’s list of 100 Modern Erotic Classics that You’ve Never Heard of, a list curated by Rebecca Black in honor of the first ever Erotic World Book Day (March 5th).

House of Sable Locks is on that list.

I appear to have written a modern erotic classic. That’s pretty mind-blowing, especially since Sable Locks is only my second novel! And that list also includes the two people on whom I fondly blame all of my writing — Laura Antoniou and Jacqueline Carey. If I wasn’t completely wiped out, I’d be squeeing all over the place.

It’s also a little terrifying. Because now I have to do it again.

You know what? Given a choice between jubilation and terror, I’ll go for the jubilation. I’d much rather squee!

It’s been busy. The line edits on The School have gone off to editorial at Forbidden Fiction. We’ve been talking about changing the title there, but nothing has gelled yet. I have a couple that I like, but we have to nail it down. That will come soon, I think.

There have been a couple of story sales in the past month. One I can’t say because there hasn’t been a contract signed yet, but the other two… well, I’m proud of those, and very excited. I will have TWO stories appearing in the upcoming Marketplace anthology No Safewords 2! One of them revisits Thomas and Eugenia from O, Promise Me!, my story in the first No Safewords anthology. The other story… well, I’ll leave you on tenterhooks for now.

Now, being as it’s been a busy year, and a stressful couple of months, I decided that once the line edits were in, I was going to take the rest of the year off. Reset my brain, read for pleasure, not do anything except for edits.

So… what does an erotica writer do when she’s resetting her brain?

Bake, mostly. LOTS of gluten free cookies:

Almond Cranberry biscotti.

Carob oatmeal lace cookies. Carob because both males in my house are allergic to chocolate.

Italian three color cookies before assembly

And after, covered with white chocolate. I forgot to take a picture after I cut them.

Flourless peanut butter and jelly cookies

And coconut macaroons.

Tomorrow, I’ll be making my mother’s recipe for jelly cakes (which probably have a proper name, but she never called them anything but jelly cakes), and on Tuesday, I’ll be making cookies for the teachers at my son’s school.

I saw the cover copy for the first time about ten minutes ago. And I’m looking for someone to poke me and wake me up…

“Ten stories of BDSM, submission, and service set in the secret world of Laura Antoniou’s Marketplace. The Marketplace has fans all over the world, and Antoniou invited them to come play in her fictional sandbox/dungeon. Numbered among those fans happen to be some of the top erotica and alternative sexuality writers in the world, including D.L. King, Sassafras Lowrey, and Elizabeth Schechter.”

I found out when I opened my email this morning that Princes of Air has finaled in the Passionate Plume contest — the published contest of the Passionate Ink chapter of the Romance Writers of America!

Oh… me…

This is a big deal for me. Not only is this contest judging the best of published erotica in the RWA… but Princes didn’t even make the cut last year, when I entered it as an unpublished manuscript in the Stroke of Midnight (the Passionate Ink unpublished contest).

Do I care if I win? I don’t think so. Finalling is a big enough deal for me! I’ll find out the end of July, though. (Now I really do wish I could go to Nationals! Can’t afford the trip to Anaheim, though.)

Circlet Press released the titles of the nineteen stories that made the cut for the upcoming FANTASTIC EROTICA: The Best of Circlet Press 2008-2012.

A Vision In X-Ray And Visible Light by Nobilis Reed
A Woman of Uncommon Accomplishment by Elizabeth Reeve
At The Crossroads by Monique Poirier
Catch And Release by Sunny Moraine
Devil’s Masquerade by Michael M. Jones
Enslaved by Kierstin Cherry
Fences by David Hubbard
Ink by Bernie Mojzes
Lawman by Angela Caperton
Mirror by Clarice Clique
Navigator by Kathleen Tudor
Ota Discovers Fire by Vinnie Tesla
Rescue Wounds by Kal Cobalt
The Beauty of Broken Glass by Frances Selkirk
The Dancer’s War by N.K. Jemisin
The Many Little Deaths of Cicilia Long by Shanna Germain
The Pirate From The Sky by Sacchi GreenThe Succubus by Elizabeth Schechter
Wood by David Sklar

I am so pleased and proud to be a part of this elite group! Thank you all for voting!

(I just realized I’m sharing a TOC with a Hugo Nominee!!! How cool is THAT???)